The Ultimate Tease for Pandora: First Contact

[spelk]

Rob Clark puts up a good review of the game
http://www.oneguytoomanygames.com/2013/11/pandora-first-contact-review.html

[CptHowdy]

just picked this up as I have never played smac  :o yeah you heard me right, i have never played smac :-[

[Martok]

Rob Clark puts up a good review of the game
http://www.oneguytoomanygames.com/2013/11/pandora-first-contact-review.html

Thanks for the link, spelk.  Yeah, that was a pretty thorough (and well-written) review.   


The game generally seems to be garnering positive feedback so far.  It sounds like the consensus thus far is that there's not much revolutionary or "new" (which I would agree with, given what I saw in the beta), but what Pandora *does* do, it does well. 

just picked this up as I have never played smac  :o yeah you heard me right, i have never played smac :-[

I wouldn't feel too bad about that.  I daresay there's quite a few of us that haven't played certain classic strategy games (gods knows I'm one of them myself), including SMAC.  At least you have the courage to admit it!  :D 

[JasonPratt]

Hello, my name is Jason, and I've never played with SMAC.

(But I'm thinking about playing this. 8) )

[spelk]

As usual, I'm loving this game, but am struggling to hold it all together. A Shameful admission, but I start out with good plans, but once things start rolling, my economy goes to pot, I focus too much on the twiddling with units, and then I get steam rollered by either, the wildlife, or the AI who have got sick of my placation routine. I think the micro later on just simply overwhelms me. So like Leia pleading into R2D2, here's me asking Civ/SMAC/4X/City Builder fanatics for help, you're my only hope... on Pandora..

[Rayfer]

As usual, I'm loving this game, but am struggling to hold it all together. A Shameful admission, but I start out with good plans, but once things start rolling, my economy goes to pot, I focus too much on the twiddling with units, and then I get steam rollered by either, the wildlife, or the AI who have got sick of my placation routine. I think the micro later on just simply overwhelms me. So like Leia pleading into R2D2, here's me asking Civ/SMAC/4X/City Builder fanatics for help, you're my only hope... on Pandora..

LOL...+1.  I have this same problem with all these Civ-like games, I start out great then hit the mid-game where things start to fall apart and then the end game when catastrophe strikes.  Not sure why but it is happenin in Pandora as well. I'm into my second game and the indigenous creatures are getting very, very aggressive.

[spelk]

Shamefully, I've set up a match, with easy difficulty on everything, with ONE AI player, and they still trounce me!!! I must just be utter shit at this game. But I really enjoy the exploration, and the unit crafting... and the unit naming. In fact I can spend more time coming up with cool names for custom troopers "Flamekin", "Beastkin", "Steelrollers" etc.. than I spend mulling over the farmer/miner/worker/scientist rotations. Perhaps thats where I'm going wrong?

In fact if I could set up a world, where all I had to fight was the wildlife, I'd buy that for a dollar!

[mikeck]

Lol...I'm having the opposite problem. Everyone is ignoring me! My military is only 2 stars...the weakest of the six players. I would think they would be attacking me left and right. No one is fighting anyone.

[Martok]

SpaceSector's review is up.  They scored it 8.3 (out of 10). 


For those who don't have the patience to read it (their reviews tend to be extremely lengthy), here's the rundown: 

The Good:
- Excellent stability and performance (very low turn-time)
- Easy to pick up due to low learning curve and user-friendly UI
- Fun and replayable tech progression due to tech tree's random nature
- Good AI that is both competent in managing its cities as challenging in the battlefield
- Elegant and micromanagement-friendly economy allows for the specialization of cities
- Interesting and diverse fauna and flora provides a nice sense of discovery
- Very enjoyable warfare that really makes you think offering diverse customizable units
- Support actions/operations are very fun to use (e.g. nukes, sat scans and black holes)

The Bad:
- Diplomacy is too simple and too predictable
- The factions are not innovative or special enough, and are also too few
- Gameplay a bit light (e.g. no espionage, social policies and simple terraforming)
- Not as immersive as Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (similar game from the 90′s)

Oh yeah, and I just finally purchased the game this morning.  Looking forward to trying out the "finished" product".  :) 

[Rayfer]

Martok...to me, the tech tree randomization should be under the 'bad' heading, not the 'good'.  There is no logic, rhyme nor reason to it.  You research farming that opens up steel plates which opens up stock market....huh?  And that's only in that game, in the next they are all jumbled up differently.  It makes planning to take a military, economic or whatever path, next to impossible. But overall I like the game, it's easy to learn, moves along at a nice pace and has that 'just one more turn' feel.

[mikeck]

Martok...to me, the tech tree randomization should be under the 'bad' heading, not the 'good'.  There is no logic, rhyme nor reason to it.  You research farming that opens up steel plates which opens up stock market....huh?  And that's only in that game, in the next they are all jumbled up differently.  It makes planning to take a military, economic or whatever path, next to impossible. But overall I like the game, it's easy to learn, moves along at a nice pace and has that 'just one more turn' feel.

I agree...why do I have to research hydro-farming in order to discover nuclear weapons delivery? Or metallurgy in order to get guerrilla warfare

[Jarhead0331]

Martok...to me, the tech tree randomization should be under the 'bad' heading, not the 'good'.  There is no logic, rhyme nor reason to it.  You research farming that opens up steel plates which opens up stock market....huh?  And that's only in that game, in the next they are all jumbled up differently.  It makes planning to take a military, economic or whatever path, next to impossible. But overall I like the game, it's easy to learn, moves along at a nice pace and has that 'just one more turn' feel.

I agree...why do I have to research hydro-farming in order to discover nuclear weapons delivery? Or metallurgy in order to get guerrilla warfare

While you're thinking about it, try asking why you have to research guerrilla warfare at all in the first place.

[Rayfer]

Martok...to me, the tech tree randomization should be under the 'bad' heading, not the 'good'.  There is no logic, rhyme nor reason to it.  You research farming that opens up steel plates which opens up stock market....huh?  And that's only in that game, in the next they are all jumbled up differently.  It makes planning to take a military, economic or whatever path, next to impossible. But overall I like the game, it's easy to learn, moves along at a nice pace and has that 'just one more turn' feel.

I agree...why do I have to research hydro-farming in order to discover nuclear weapons delivery? Or metallurgy in order to get guerrilla warfare

While you're thinking about it, try asking why you have to research guerrilla warfare at all in the first place.

LOL...touche'.  But then.....you are humans on an alien world where the flora and fauna are unlike anything you have ever seen or encountered.  Conducting guerrilla warfare under those conditions might be something one needs to research and learn? Just saying.

[Martok]

I freely concede the structure of Pandora's randomized tech trees lacks a certain...logic.  ???  It does need to be addressed IMO. 

That being said, I'm still enjoying my first game so far.  I'm playing the techie faction and currently fighting off the native fauna.  Fun! 

While you're thinking about it, try asking why you have to research guerrilla warfare at all in the first place.

I'll admit that's something that irritates me in quite a few strategy games.  Needing to research things like "Alliances", "Democratic Governments", "Ground Combat", etc. has always baffled/annoyed me. 

[Rayfer]

I freely concede the structure of Pandora's randomized tech trees lacks a certain...logic.  ???  It does need to be addressed IMO. 

That being said, I'm still enjoying my first game so far.  I'm playing the techie faction and currently fighting off the native fauna.  Fun! 

While you're thinking about it, try asking why you have to research guerrilla warfare at all in the first place.

I'll admit that's something that irritates me in quite a few strategy games.  Needing to research things like "Alliances", "Democratic Governments", "Ground Combat", etc. has always baffled/annoyed me.

I'm enjoying the game too, especially mounting expeditions to destroy the hives to put a stop to the endlessly spawning alien creatures that love to attack my cities. Quite a lot of fun.